WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Freshman forward Adam Cowie-Haskell made his first career goal a game-winner and lifted the Wesleyan University men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University Tuesday afternoon at Thomas Nevers Field.

At right: Konnor Scarponi battles Brandon Sousa in Tuesday's 1-0 home-opening loss to Wesleyan at Thomas Nevers Field. (Photo by Liam Murphy).

Playing its opener, Wesleyan had the better of play throughout and finally broke through with 15 minutes left when Cowie-Haskell converted a pass from sophomore midfielder Charlie Gruner for the only goal of the match. Haskell controlled Gruner's pass in the box, initially misfired on the first attempt, but maintained control, took a touch, and fired his shot past Eastern sophomore keeper Greg Walton (Brunswick, ME). The shot was the only one of nine that landed on goal for Wesleyan.

Wesleyan nearly broke through with five minutes left in the first half when frshman midfielder Garrett Hardesty one-touched a pass in the center of the box to senior forward Matt Lynch, who boomed an 18-yarder wide of the post.

Early in the second half, junior midfielder Chris Kafina stole the ball in the Eastern zone and fed Cowie-Haskell, whose hard shot from 25 yards ran wide right.  Sixteen minutes into the second half, senior back Ben Bratt crashed the net, but his solid header from 15 yards was blocked.

Senior keeper Emmett McConnell needed only two saves to record the shutout in his first start of the season.

More than half of Eastern's starting lineup consisted of newcomers playing their first home match: first-year junior Michael Segala (Prospect), first-year sophomores Konnor Scarponi (Brunswick, ME) and Tyler Jones (Vernon) and freshmen JD Stearns (Bolton), Xavier Doran (Hebon) and Adam Traxler (Newburyport, MA).

Eastern (1-1-0) started six program newcomers in the home-opener.

Eastern visits MIT Saturday at 4 p.m.